Letter to the Editor: Transplant case ‘too complicated’ for team

Published
3:49 pm EDT, Thursday, March 19, 2015

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Letter to the Editor: Transplant case ‘too complicated’ for team

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I read with great admiration the story of the four wives who were kidney donors for their husbands at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Being the devoted wife of a husband who has stage 4 kidney disease, I know the agony of kidney failure and would do anything to also be a “hero” in order to release him from the three days a week, four-hour routine of dialysis which now has become an unwelcome, yet necessary part of his life.

The four couples were also very fortunate to have had the good fortune to get to know the more pleasant side of the Yale-New Haven Transplantation Department. Last summer, my husband went through all the screenings to get onto the national kidney transplant list. He was upfront with this team of medical experts (composed of surgeons, pharmacists, nutritionists, psychiatrists, nurses and social workers) and told them that he was a “complicated” case since he has several health issues that contributed and are still a part of his kidney failure. The Team, however, told him not to worry and he would soon be on the transplant list.

We were finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and were sending out “champion letters” to our friends and colleagues asking them to help us find a live kidney donor.

Soon after, my husband contacted his nurse coordinator with a general transplant question and she informed him that the Team was reconsidering their decision. For weeks, we could not get any concrete answers. Calls to this once helpful transplant nursing professional went unreturned. Finally, my husband’s doctor delivered the bad news which was soon followed up with a sterile rejection letter from the Yale-New Haven Transplantation Department.

Yes, the Yale-New Haven Transplantation Team knows how to perform miracles and save the lives of patients in need of new kidneys as long as the case is not too complicated for their expertise. As soon as they realize that it actually is, the door that was once open to hope is slammed in your face — without warning or apology.